Eva Salamonová

* 1956

  • “I just know that in the flat, in the basement, where they were hiding, there had to be Germans accommodated when the army came. People had no choice. They had a house, the Záruba’s family, and just imagine: they were sleeping in the basement and above them, there was an officer sleeping as they were obliged to lodge him. So these people were hiding Jews in their basement and in the house they had a German soldier. It really had to be huge stress for everyone. For example, my grandpa got bronchitis there and it surely is impossible not to cough when one has it. My mom used to say it was awful, that they used to put blankets on him just to muffle the noise, so they weren’t disclosed.”

  • “Later I found some documents how my grandpa litigated to get his house. He won the trial, but they informed him, that even though they were about to return the house back to him, as it belongs to him and they took it illegally, they are unable to provide him with spare living, since other ‘comrades’ had been already living there. Until the end of their lives they couldn’t have returned to their house. Poor people had to end up in a senior house – grandma was in Bystrica. My grandpa was probably fed up with Bystrica, so he packed himself and left to a senior house in Brno, because there he had some friends.”

  • “Until today I cannot accept or understand that. It still fascinates me, how far one’s hatred and indifference can reach. Such silent majority. That is fascinating for me: you live, have neighbors, and back then the relationships were much closer – everyone knew the name of his neighbor. Back then, the neighbors visited each other, the kids played together and suddenly, from one day to another, those people were willing to shove you into a freight car and send you to gas. I shall never understand this. Moreover, they were ready to take your stuff, your table cloth, sheets, completely intimate things.”

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    Bratislava, Slovensko, 11.03.2018

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It still fascinates me, how far one’s hatred and indifference can reach

Eva Salamonová
Eva Salamonová
zdroj: archív pamätníka

Eva Salamonová was born after the war to parents, who survived the Holocaust. Her whole childhood has been strongly marked by their awful experiences. Her mom had been hiding with her whole family at different places and families. She was also in evangelical lyceum in Modra. Eva‘s father fought in the Slovak National Uprising, however, later he was captured by Germans and together with his brother they got to the prisoner-of-war camp. His brother died there of hunger. Eva Salamonová perceived Jewishness very intimately and only after the revolution and visiting of Israel she has managed to proudly bring back her origin.